In conventional wall to ceiling partitioned offices the electrical and telephone wiring was generally located in the permanent wall structures and therefore concealing and controlling wiring for telephones, dictaphones, calculators and similar office equipment was not a significant problem. With the increasing use of the open office plan, wherein offices are defined by a system of movable partitions that in general do not reach the ceiling, there has been a problem of controlling and conealing electrical wiring. Additionally, the use of electrical power at work stations in the modern office is increasing significantly with the use of computer terminals and electronic word processing equipment.
In the early stages of the open office plan wire managers of the type disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,759,297 to W. C. Anderson et al. were employed to mount the cables and wiring directly to the wall panel systems in an effort to both control and conceal the wiring. As the open office plan evolved it was determined that maintaining the wiring permanently within the wall panel system was desirable and a second generation of wall panel systems evolved known as the power panel in which the baseboard of the wall panel permanently or removably enclosed the electrical wiring for the panel system. One such system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,278,834 to B. K. Boundy. Further evolution of the open office plan system indicated that utilization of electrical power was not necessarily always directly adjacent the wall panel and additional systems were devised to control and conceal electrical wiring at and along the user's desk or work station. Two examples of desk mounted wiring systems are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,094,561 to D. F. Wolff et al. and U.S. Pat. No. 4,296,981 to N. Hildebrandt et al.
Since in some instances the power cables must be carried by the wall system and in others they must be carried by the actual desk or work station a simple, aesthetically appealing universal cable manager which is adapted for use both on a space dividing wall panel as well as the work surface has become increasingly desirable.